day 22: Christ, the Son of David
/Readings: 2 Samuel 7, Jeremiah 33:14-26, Matthew 1:1-17, Luke 20:41-44, Revelation 22:16-21
Sometime around the year 1000 B.C., King David longed to build a house for his beloved God, Yahweh. He looked around at his own royal palace in Jerusalem and saw that if even he, just a small human king with a very short reign in the scope of eternity, had such a beautiful place to live, why shouldn't Israel's everlasting King Yahweh have an even richer dwelling place?
David longed to bless his God. But God said no - let Me bless you instead.
"The LORD also declares to you that the LORD will make a house for you. . . . Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever."
2 Samuel 7:11b, 16
As this covenant promise was passed through the generations and expanded through the words of the prophets, the Jewish people came to watch expectantly for the next King David - the one who would be Davidic in both heritage and rule. He would rule with justice and righteousness like His forefather (1 Chronicles 18:14), and His coming would signify the same kind of prosperity. This was the One they expected. The Messiah. The Son of David.
But this expectation alone was too small, too short-sighted.
The Christ who did come was, legally speaking, a descendant of David - but He is also David's Lord.
The Christ who came was, in fact, a Branch from David's family tree - but He is also the Root of that tree.
And the Christ who came does, indeed, rule with justice and righteousness - but the prosperity He brought with Him was not national, not physical, not even individual; it was spiritual. The rest, we still await.
But we wait expectantly - prostrate with gratefulness, like David the king - knowing that ours is a God who keeps His promises, and that the work Christ began when He first came as the Root and Descendant of David is still in the process of completion.
Thus says the LORD, "If you can break My covenant for the day and My covenant for the night, so that day and night will not be at their appointed time, then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant."
Jeremiah 33:20-21a
For seven hundred years, Israel waited on this promise - the promise of the coming Son of David. And He came. This is why we celebrate.
And for as long as God tarries, we, too, wait on this promise - the promise of the Son of David's second coming, this time not as the crucified King of the Jews, but as the resurrected King of all creation.
He who testifies to these things says "Yes, I am coming quickly." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Revelation 22:20
